I’m a big supporter of ambient music. It’s my favorite genre, mostly because I find it’s the best at setting mood – I’ll shuffleupbeat ambient tracksto relax, for example, and dark ambient when I’m brooding. That’s right, there are ambient subgenres, if you didn’t know. There’s even ritual ambient if you need asoundtrackto your Norse or Mesopotamian conquests.
Apple seems to have clued into all this to a degree, given an Ambient Music feature it’s introducing with iOS 18.4, currently in beta. In this guide, I’ll explain both what it does and how you can go about adding it to your owniPhone, with or withoutApple Music. Most of these details also apply to iPads running iPadOS 18.4 or later, but I’m focusing on iPhones here for the sake of simplicity.
Is iPhone better than Android for sound quality?
The answer isn’t as clear-cut as it once might’ve been.
What is Ambient Music in iOS 18.4?
Music to soothe the savage beast
Essentially, the feature creates a series of themed playlist shortcuts in the iOS Control Center. Instead of opening Apple Music or Spotify and hunting for something to play, just swipe to open Control Center and boom, you’re off to the races.
Why make this a feature? That can be explained by Apple’s shortcut names – Chill, Sleep, Productivity, and Wellbeing. If you’re about to go to bed, or lock into a difficult work project, there’s an obvious appeal to getting in the right mindspace with a few taps. I know I find it difficult to take a nap without some sort of quiet playlist in the background, be it music, field recordings, or someone talking.
The feature creates a series of themed playlist shortcuts in the iOS Control Center.
By default these shortcuts are linked to specific playlists on Apple Music, but you can change which ones they point to. That’s welcome, considering that Apple’s selections can be a little bland sometimes. Often the company skews towards smaller, generic-sounding ambient artists rather than more popular ones like Brian Eno, The Orb, or Stars of the Lid.
Some people report the feature working without an Apple Music subscription, so it’s worth a try even if you’re paying for something else, like Spotify or YouTube Music.
Does smart tech really add that much to your fitness regimen?
The full answer varies from person to person, but here’s my gym-buff take.
How to use Ambient Music in iOS 18.4
Learn and love editing Control Center
Follow these steps to get started:
When you’re actually listening to something, you’re limited to basic track and volume controls, as well asAirPlayif you want to cast to a compatible speaker. The good news is that you don’t have to stay on the playback screen – music can continue in the background if you swipe it away. On an iPhone with a Dynamic Island, such as the iPhone 15 or 16, you’ll have access to tap-and-hold multitasking controls.
All of the above steps are essentially identical for iPadOS. The only meaningful differences are that the Control Center is squashed into the right side of your screen, and that there’s no Dynamic Island for iPads – at least, not yet.
With the iPhone 16e, is Apple abandoning budget devices?
Some upcoming hardware refreshes should confirm where Apple is headed.
